USD/JPY - Today's data summary

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Pound remains in the doldrums

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The value of the pound remained in the doldrums today as investors scrabble to sell the currency amid worries that a general election in the UK could add to Brexit uncertainty.

Now worth less than $1.20, the pound has lost 20% of its value against the dollar since the Brexit referendum and is regularly trading at its lowest level since 1985, barring a brief "flash crash" in October 2016 when it fell as low as $1.15.

The pound is down 0.4% against the euro and 0.7% against the dollar.

Posted at10:0630 Aug

Pound flat

After a tumultuous week that has seen the value of the pound fluctuate against both the euro and the dollar, sterling has been relatively stable so far today.

At present £1 is worth €1.10 and $1.22 on currency markets.

Posted at9:3728 Aug

Pound falls as Johnson threatens to suspend parliament

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The value of the pound has fallen this morning following news that Prime Minister Boris Johnson is planning to suspend parliament in a move that is expected to prevent opposition leaders from passing a law to stop a no-deal Brexit.

The pound is down 0.4% against the euro and 0.5% against the dollar. So £1 is now worth €1.10 and $1.22.

Posted at11:2221 Aug

No-deal Brexit fears weigh on pound

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The pound continued to trade lower against the dollar and the euro amid fears about a no-deal Brexit.

"We are tactically long [on] GBP in our trade of the week as we feel there is some short term risk of a bounce if this week's talks are not as bad as feared," she says.

Posted at11:2819 Aug

Pound slides on the dollar and the euro

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The pound is down 0.24% against the dollar at $1.2119. Sterling is also trading 0.31% lower against the euro at €1.0917.

It is a key week for Boris Johnson who will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday and Thursday respectively in the UK Prime Minister's first overseas meetings since his appointment.

He is expected to tell them that there needs to be a new Brexit deal. The UK is now 10 weeks away from the departure date on 31 October.

It comes ahead of the G7 Summit in Biarritz at the weekend.

Marshall Gittler, a strategist at ACLS Global, says: "I expect the pound to be increasingly volatile as the
deadline approaches and more and more desperate measures get
considered in public and probably even tried in real life.

"Hopes that something will be found to prevent a no-deal
Brexit will send the pound up, as they did on Friday, but then the
currency will come back down once it's realised that those hopes
are unfounded."

Marshall Gittler, chief
strategist at ACLS Global, says: "This suggests consumer spending is still holding up and
still supporting the economy even though overall output
contracted in the second quarter.